Some people say “stars are not born, they’re made.”
Rogers High School junior basketball standout Zia Cooke, parents Stratman III and Michelle Cooke, and Rams coach Lamar Smith subscribe to that belief.
There is little doubt Zia — now a superb 5-foot-9 point guard coveted by some 55 Division I college basketball programs — was born with a healthy portion of athletic potential.
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But what she’s done with it since first playing in fifth grade — when she ditched mom’s pink dresses to play sports with older brother Stratman IV — is the result of her love of the game. It also is the byproduct of her willingness to outwork almost any of her peers in the sport statewide.
The reward for that came March 17, when sixth-ranked Rogers capped a 27-3 season with a 51-37 victory against third-ranked Gates Mills Gilmour in the Division II girls basketball state championship game at Value City Arena in Columbus.
For her part, Cooke dazzled the crowd with her array of impressive drives, jump shots, and hustle in a spectacular 33-point, 14-rebound performance in the title game, the first won by a Toledo girls team in 37 years.
That output, along with her season-long excellence on the court, is what made Cooke the 2018 Blade girls player of the year.
VIDEO: Zia Cooke is Blade girls basketball player of the year
Before the state championship game, Cooke drew focus from an inspirational source. She wanted to win for her grandmother, Rosa White, who died unexpectedly Feb. 15 at the age of 68 after complications from a bout with the flu and subsequent pneumonia.
“I really wanted to get that done for my grandmother because she really wanted that for me,” Cooke said. “Ever since my freshman year she would be at every game.
“When I’d get upset because we didn’t make as far as we wanted to, she’d say, ‘Just keep going. You’ll get there.’ It’s crazy she didn’t get to see it this year, because this is the year she thought we could do it.
“That’s all I was thinking about after we won. It was like, ‘Wow, I just did this for my grandmother.’ That’s why people say they saw a different look in my eye. It was because I was on a whole other level. I was doing it for her.”
Statisically speaking, Cooke averaged 21.7 points, 4.6 rebounds, 5.0 assists, and 3.1 steals per game, displaying a range of talent that includes her speedy bursts to the rim, her ability from 3-point range, and everything in between. Heading into her senior year, she has scored 1,570 career points.
In addition to the Rams’ state title, Cooke also was the third-leading scorer last June on the 16-and-under USA Basketball team that won a gold medal at an international tournament in Buenos Aires.
She has been invited to try out again in Colorado in May for the U-17 version of Team USA, which will compete this year in Russia.
These opportunities and successes were available to Cooke because of her near constant push, with the help of her father, to get better.
“I wasn’t as good then as I am now, but people noticed I had talent,” Cooke said of her youth sports days. “I was supposed to be on the girls team, but they switched me to the boys team because they said it was no fair. And then they switched me to playing with the older boys.”
Cooke’s elementary school sports endeavors included a stint as quarterback on the Mid-City Colts football team.
By seventh grade, much of the focus became basketball, and that’s when she received her first D-I college scholarship offer from Eastern Michigan University. Since then, offers have come from top college programs such as South Carolina, Mississippi State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Tennessee, Louisville, and Texas.
“It is my life,” Cooke said of basketball. “It’s my meal ticket. It’s my first love. I love basketball. Everything I think about is basketball. I grew up with it, and I’m going to be doing this for a long time.”
Cooke already has joined the list of all-time great female players from Toledo, in company with the likes of current WNBA player Natasha Howard, who was an Ohio Ms. Basketball playing for state runner-up Waite in 2010. Her talents for the game might already be unmatched.
“Zia’s skill set is explosive,” Smith said. “She has very quick muscle twitches, and can adjust her speed at a high pace. That’s dangerous when you have an athlete that can do that.
“You don’t normally see young ladies who can switch gears like that, and jump and elevate and spin and change directions that quick. That makes Zia dangerous because she can attack the basket and jump with 6-2 post players.”
These skills were developed, not given.
“She has great work ethic,” Smith said. “If young girls want to be good basketball players they want to talk to her and find out the hours she puts in to become like that.
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“It’s not just a natural thing. She works with her dad, and they go shoot and work on other things. Sometimes I have to tell Zia to rest because she’s always working.”
With the Team USA gold medal and the Ohio state championship now on her resume. Cooke looks for new challenges before she gets to college.
“I have a few more goals I want to reach,” she said. “I want to be Ohio’s Ms. Basketball, I want to be an All-American, and of course, I want to graduate.
“I want to get a 2,000 [career points] ball. I want another state championship, and I feel like we can do it again. Right now, I’m on a mission to make the USA team again.”
Carrying a 3.23 grade-point average, Cooke also recognizes the value of her education in maximizing her future opportunites. And, as she sorts through the college scholarship offers during the next few months, she has firm objectives.
“I want a coach that can make me better,” Cooke said. “I don’t want to go into college and be the same player I was before I got there.
“I want a family atmosphere. And, I want to have a close connection with my coach like I have with coach Smith. I want to win, of course, and I want to get better.”
Contact Steve Junga at: sjunga@theblade.com, 419-724-6461, or on Twitter @JungaBlade.
First Published March 23, 2018, 4:30 a.m.
